This page contains meeting notes and follow up actions to be taken. These are listed by date.
Preparation for December 10 Meeting
[1] Be sure to review the key points below from our November 5 meeting. (These notes are also attached as Word files for easy downloading.) We will use the ideas from these small group conversations to address the questions below on December 10.
[2] If you have not already done so, please join and take a look at the SummitPD ning before we get together on Thursday. The url is http://summitpd.ning.com
You will need a ning account. If you do not have one, just go to http://www.ning.com and click on Join Now (in the upper right-hand corner). Then just follow the steps as outlined.
Your familiarity with the ning will help our discussion on Thursday.
[3] In keeping with the goals and charge of TLC (as articulated on the home page of this wiki) and in view of the ideas and recommendations from our November 5 conversations, we will explore the following 3 questions:
(a) How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
(b) How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
(c) How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices ?
A: Using points made in this chapter, as well as your experience here, what are strengths we believe Summit has relative to Best Practice?
Collaboration
Experiential (could be more in some areas)
Performance
Authentic experience
Challenging
Expressive: expressing ideas in wide variety of ways
Social
Use of democratic principles: need to do more: class meetings address areas to improve, discipline, etc.
Need balance between student-driven goals and teacher-driven goals
Choices
Teachers who are knowledgeable about best practice
Not bound to end-of-year tests
Caring Environment
PE and Kindergarten teachers good at reflection time after class
Reading to class and partner reading
Teachers visiting each other: homeroom teacher visiting specialist benefit each other
B. What focus area(s) would you identify as important in moving ourselves forward in Best Practice terms?
More collaborative activities
Offer more choices
More responsibilities given to students
Opportunities for authentic creativity: e.g., write plays, create aspects of curriculum
Focus on formative rather than summative assessment
Student organization and goal-setting
Authentic learning
Help teachers articulating educational philosophies
More student-centered, active learning; more transferred to student
Permission to go deep in a subject
More peer review
More active learning
More center-based learning
Chapter Eight Focus Questions (C & D)
C: Based on what you know about your classroom and others in your division, what structure(s) would you choose to add?
Taking more time for reflective assessments
Build in advanced planning time for constructing assessments
Like merging of writing and reading
Like representing to learn, which begs differentiation
Text coding: gives ownership of learning and practical tools
Classroom workshop places teacher as guide; students able to discuss with each other all that they’re doing
Authentic experiences: Learning by doing is so strong
Getting parents involved: e.g., PE jump rope for heart community service: broadening perspective of what we learn, affecting us and our environment
Would be great to have better departmental communication
D. How can Subject-Area Leaders help us move forward from where we are, recognizing that we have some elements of Best Practice already?
After you meet, take time to reflect: Think about how to act on your communication
Affirming best practices that ARE happening, and show/model these
Name the best practices we see
Critical Friends Groups in the past have been really helpful, as well as wikis and nings
Pick one practice and focus on that across the school for a period of time: Look for ways in all areas to implement that; So, as a whole school subject area leaders could help move forward, but not everything at once
Aim for balance
Note: This activity was a variation on a cooperative learning strategy called “Jigsaw.” Giving each person in the group a particular topic on which to lead the discussion, a part of a problem to investigate, or a part of a selection to read for meaning insures that each person is engaged and has a role to play in the whole group discussion that often occurs following the work period.
Feedback from Small Groups on Reaction to Best Practice
• Many of the items on the list seemed too specific (buying choral music, for instance) and that this was a result of doing the first exercise in subject area pairs. That being said, however, we focused on two topics that seemed achievable and that, in a way, mirror one another, one coming at the beginning of a lesson or unit and the other at the end. Those were:
[1] Asking the students what they already know about a subject as part of the introduction to a unit and also asking them what they would like to know—a way to leverage curiosity as we say in the six promises.
[2] Giving students time for reflection after a lesson or unit——processing time. We talked about how this could be as simple as writing a journal entry (sorry, I refuse to use the “word” “journaling”) or it could take more complex forms. We also talked about the possible value of waiting until a few days after the unit to ask for reflection.
• In addition to focusing on those two topics, we also talked about how many elements of best practice are already being used in the Summit classrooms. Indeed the so-called “Summit Way” (elegantly articulated in the six promises) is full of best practices, especially in the area of active, experiential learning. We thought it would be a nice idea to point this out to teachers—to give them a pat on the back, as it were, for using some best practices, THEN encourage them to use more.
• How to get students to take more ownership? How to get them involved more in the curriculum? For students to lead in Foreign Language, they have to learn basics. More teacher-oriented in beginning, they then cultivate skills and knowledge that allow them to lead. Sometimes you feel under the gun to get them “prepared for what’s next.” Can have students choose within projects. [Role and nature of choice]
• Workshop and mini-lesson works in writing and language arts
• How do you work the core curriculum into their interests? Is it harder to do as the students get older?
• How do you as a teacher get comfortable with trying things differently when you feel comfortable as you are? The logistics of this scare me. Potential is exciting and very scary as a teacher.
• Would benefit from observing teachers doing this in one’s subject area.
• Change one thing and try it. Brainstorming and working closely together.
• Would like to connect more with technology
• The more student-oriented, the more planning and prep and organization you have to do. Must take the time to model and plan. If not, students don’t rise to the occasion.
• Student ownership: time to process and give feedback at end of each class
• Children take ownership in classroom environment that is student-directed
• Time for reflection, both for students and teachers
• Degree of student-centeredness can vary by grade level
• Need to get students to take ownership of work and classroom environment.
Student directed activities key and a form of assessment: How do we implement and assess?
• Could be implemented immediately:
Look at what we are doing already and change to more student directed activities
• Start with small changes
• Share what we are doing already
• Could be implemented immediately:
Using movement
Activate prior knowledge with students
Preparation for November 5 Meeting
• Be sure to have read the agreed upon chapters from Best Practice.
• Anticipate how we might leverage our membership in professional organizations in the service of our work as a leadership committee (refining practice and deepening student learning beyond our own classrooms).
• Plan to reflect on folks' small group notes from last session
Here are the small group notes from October 1, compiled. We'll interact over these points in our November 5 meeting.
FollowUptoOctober1Meeting
[Email sent to TLC on October 1, 2009]
TLC members,
Thank you for your participation in today's meeting--and for your leadership on this committee. In serving on this committee, you are involved as architects in designing a new structure at Summit--one that systematically supports colleagues in refining their teaching and enhancing students' learning. That's work worth doing.
In keeping with our discussion and work today, let's follow through in these ways:
[1] At your earliest convenience (please, by October 6), one member of each group today will email me the key points from your conversation about what you noticed, what you wondered and what you would recommend as you reviewed the inside cover and back cover of BEST PRACTICE along with the notes from our May 21 meeting. I will pull these key points together and send them back out to the group. Please consider these carefully prior to our next meeting.
[2] At your earliest convenience, please email me with: The professional organization to which you belong in your role as a Subject Area Leader OR the professional organization to which you believe you NEED to belong in your role as Subject Area Leader. (If you aren't connected, yet, to an organization, we'll rectify that. Just let me know.) This information will be placed on our TLC Wiki. We are professional resources for one another and for our colleagues. Knowing which professional organizations folks belong to (and tapping into the resources these organizations provide) is an important part of the work of this committee.
[3] Please investigate what workshop or conference or professional development materials you believe you could benefit from in support of your role as Subject Area Leader. Come see me or Pat Capps about this. We want to feed your subject area "muse" so that you can inspire others. We're serious about this commitment.
[4] Please plan to meet on Thursday, November 5 from 3:45 - 5 p.m.
[5] For our November 5 meeting, the "research to review" is as follows: Chapters 1 and 8 from BEST PRACTICE and John Murray's piece from INDEPENDENT TEACHER entitled "Pedagogical Implications of Cognitive Science Research." (http://www.independentteacher.org/vol3/3.2-4.html)
[6] The Summit TLC wiki is up and running. You should have received an email invitation to join. Please feel free to use this as a resource.
Contact Pat Capps or me with thoughts, suggestions, questions, what have you.
This page contains meeting notes and follow up actions to be taken. These are listed by date.
Preparation for December 10 Meeting
[1] Be sure to review the key points below from our November 5 meeting. (These notes are also attached as Word files for easy downloading.) We will use the ideas from these small group conversations to address the questions below on December 10.
[2] If you have not already done so, please join and take a look at the SummitPD ning before we get together on Thursday. The url is http://summitpd.ning.com
You will need a ning account. If you do not have one, just go to http://www.ning.com and click on Join Now (in the upper right-hand corner). Then just follow the steps as outlined.
Your familiarity with the ning will help our discussion on Thursday.
[3] In keeping with the goals and charge of TLC (as articulated on the home page of this wiki) and in view of the ideas and recommendations from our November 5 conversations, we will explore the following 3 questions:
(a) How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
(b) How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
(c) How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices ?
Key Points from the November 5 Meeting
Chapter One Focus Questions (A & B)
A: Using points made in this chapter, as well as your experience here, what are strengths we believe Summit has relative to Best Practice?
Collaboration
Experiential (could be more in some areas)
Performance
Authentic experience
Challenging
Expressive: expressing ideas in wide variety of ways
Social
Use of democratic principles: need to do more: class meetings address areas to improve, discipline, etc.
Need balance between student-driven goals and teacher-driven goals
Choices
Teachers who are knowledgeable about best practice
Not bound to end-of-year tests
Caring Environment
PE and Kindergarten teachers good at reflection time after class
Reading to class and partner reading
Teachers visiting each other: homeroom teacher visiting specialist benefit each other
B. What focus area(s) would you identify as important in moving ourselves forward in Best Practice terms?
More collaborative activities
Offer more choices
More responsibilities given to students
Opportunities for authentic creativity: e.g., write plays, create aspects of curriculum
Focus on formative rather than summative assessment
Student organization and goal-setting
Authentic learning
Help teachers articulating educational philosophies
More student-centered, active learning; more transferred to student
Permission to go deep in a subject
More peer review
More active learning
More center-based learning
Chapter Eight Focus Questions (C & D)
C: Based on what you know about your classroom and others in your division, what structure(s) would you choose to add?
Taking more time for reflective assessments
Build in advanced planning time for constructing assessments
Like merging of writing and reading
Like representing to learn, which begs differentiation
Text coding: gives ownership of learning and practical tools
Classroom workshop places teacher as guide; students able to discuss with each other all that they’re doing
Authentic experiences: Learning by doing is so strong
Getting parents involved: e.g., PE jump rope for heart community service: broadening perspective of what we learn, affecting us and our environment
Would be great to have better departmental communication
D. How can Subject-Area Leaders help us move forward from where we are, recognizing that we have some elements of Best Practice already?
After you meet, take time to reflect: Think about how to act on your communication
Affirming best practices that ARE happening, and show/model these
Name the best practices we see
Critical Friends Groups in the past have been really helpful, as well as wikis and nings
Pick one practice and focus on that across the school for a period of time: Look for ways in all areas to implement that; So, as a whole school subject area leaders could help move forward, but not everything at once
Aim for balance
Note: This activity was a variation on a cooperative learning strategy called “Jigsaw.” Giving each person in the group a particular topic on which to lead the discussion, a part of a problem to investigate, or a part of a selection to read for meaning insures that each person is engaged and has a role to play in the whole group discussion that often occurs following the work period.
Feedback from Small Groups on Reaction to Best Practice
• Many of the items on the list seemed too specific (buying choral music, for instance) and that this was a result of doing the first exercise in subject area pairs. That being said, however, we focused on two topics that seemed achievable and that, in a way, mirror one another, one coming at the beginning of a lesson or unit and the other at the end. Those were:
[1] Asking the students what they already know about a subject as part of the introduction to a unit and also asking them what they would like to know—a way to leverage curiosity as we say in the six promises.
[2] Giving students time for reflection after a lesson or unit——processing time. We talked about how this could be as simple as writing a journal entry (sorry, I refuse to use the “word” “journaling”) or it could take more complex forms. We also talked about the possible value of waiting until a few days after the unit to ask for reflection.
• In addition to focusing on those two topics, we also talked about how many elements of best practice are already being used in the Summit classrooms. Indeed the so-called “Summit Way” (elegantly articulated in the six promises) is full of best practices, especially in the area of active, experiential learning. We thought it would be a nice idea to point this out to teachers—to give them a pat on the back, as it were, for using some best practices, THEN encourage them to use more.
• How to get students to take more ownership? How to get them involved more in the curriculum? For students to lead in Foreign Language, they have to learn basics. More teacher-oriented in beginning, they then cultivate skills and knowledge that allow them to lead. Sometimes you feel under the gun to get them “prepared for what’s next.” Can have students choose within projects. [Role and nature of choice]
• Workshop and mini-lesson works in writing and language arts
• How do you work the core curriculum into their interests? Is it harder to do as the students get older?
• How do you as a teacher get comfortable with trying things differently when you feel comfortable as you are? The logistics of this scare me. Potential is exciting and very scary as a teacher.
• Would benefit from observing teachers doing this in one’s subject area.
• Change one thing and try it. Brainstorming and working closely together.
• Would like to connect more with technology
• The more student-oriented, the more planning and prep and organization you have to do. Must take the time to model and plan. If not, students don’t rise to the occasion.
• Student ownership: time to process and give feedback at end of each class
• Children take ownership in classroom environment that is student-directed
• Time for reflection, both for students and teachers
• Degree of student-centeredness can vary by grade level
• Need to get students to take ownership of work and classroom environment.
Student directed activities key and a form of assessment: How do we implement and assess?
• Could be implemented immediately:
Look at what we are doing already and change to more student directed activities
• Start with small changes
• Share what we are doing already
• Could be implemented immediately:
Using movement
Activate prior knowledge with students
Preparation for November 5 Meeting
• Be sure to have read the agreed upon chapters from Best Practice.
• Anticipate how we might leverage our membership in professional organizations in the service of our work as a leadership committee (refining practice and deepening student learning beyond our own classrooms).
• Plan to reflect on folks' small group notes from last session
Here are the small group notes from October 1, compiled. We'll interact over these points in our November 5 meeting.
Follow Up to October 1 Meeting
[Email sent to TLC on October 1, 2009]
TLC members,
Thank you for your participation in today's meeting--and for your leadership on this committee. In serving on this committee, you are involved as architects in designing a new structure at Summit--one that systematically supports colleagues in refining their teaching and enhancing students' learning. That's work worth doing.
In keeping with our discussion and work today, let's follow through in these ways:
[1] At your earliest convenience (please, by October 6), one member of each group today will email me the key points from your conversation about what you noticed, what you wondered and what you would recommend as you reviewed the inside cover and back cover of BEST PRACTICE along with the notes from our May 21 meeting. I will pull these key points together and send them back out to the group. Please consider these carefully prior to our next meeting.
[2] At your earliest convenience, please email me with: The professional organization to which you belong in your role as a Subject Area Leader OR the professional organization to which you believe you NEED to belong in your role as Subject Area Leader. (If you aren't connected, yet, to an organization, we'll rectify that. Just let me know.) This information will be placed on our TLC Wiki. We are professional resources for one another and for our colleagues. Knowing which professional organizations folks belong to (and tapping into the resources these organizations provide) is an important part of the work of this committee.
[3] Please investigate what workshop or conference or professional development materials you believe you could benefit from in support of your role as Subject Area Leader. Come see me or Pat Capps about this. We want to feed your subject area "muse" so that you can inspire others. We're serious about this commitment.
[4] Please plan to meet on Thursday, November 5 from 3:45 - 5 p.m.
[5] For our November 5 meeting, the "research to review" is as follows: Chapters 1 and 8 from BEST PRACTICE and John Murray's piece from INDEPENDENT TEACHER entitled "Pedagogical Implications of Cognitive Science Research." (http://www.independentteacher.org/vol3/3.2-4.html)
[6] The Summit TLC wiki is up and running. You should have received an email invitation to join. Please feel free to use this as a resource.
Contact Pat Capps or me with thoughts, suggestions, questions, what have you.
Best,
Michael